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(01-10-2018, 02:09 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Odds are that for the person living on Random Court, OneOfMany Crescent, or AnyOther Place, their entire right of way (which we pay to plow) gets far less human traffic of all combined modes over the course of a day than the sidewalks on Caroline get of pedestrians over the course of an hour. Yet we plow one without question, and not the other.

Good point. It would be fun to see what would happen if we re-prioritized plowing by cost divided by estimated traffic, rather than on arbitrary factors such as whether the route in question is for people walking or for people driving. I’m thinking the suburbs would pretty quickly agree that the lowest traffic level worthy of being plowed is a very low one!

Can someone remind me where the cost estimate for city-plowed sidewalks comes from? I'm assuming it's based on contracting out rather than using municipal employees and equipment. What impact would the increased minimum wage have, I wonder.

(01-10-2018, 04:56 PM)panamaniac Wrote: Can someone remind me where the cost estimate for city-plowed sidewalks comes from? I'm assuming it's based on contracting out rather than using municipal employees and equipment. What impact would the increased minimum wage have, I wonder.

Staff prepared a report where they estimated the cost for sidewalk maintenance, it isn't contracted, it's based on the city buying plows and hiring people to operate them. This makes more sense at the scale the city runs at, especially since the city already runs snow removal.

Today I saw a dude walking on Franklin, in the Southbound lanes, between the 401 overpass and the Pinebush roundabout. The snowbanks must have been close to 2m high, and he was literally walking in the off-ramp lane from 401 where traffic is doing 80 km/h. He looked desperate to find somewhere to go and couldn't.

Today sidewalks are a sheet of ice. This has been one of the worst weeks for active commuting I can recall and it's only Wednesday.

In other equally terrible news, almost 100% of the 7 bus stops between Columbia and Downtown are unplowed. Did GRT's contractor go out of business and disappear or something? I don't quite understand how it could be quite that bad.

After calling GRT, I'm told this is still within their service window.

It's being made increasingly clear to me that if I want to get around reliably and safely in the winter, I am required to buy a car.

(01-10-2018, 07:23 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: It's being made increasingly clear to me that if I want to get around reliably and safely in the winter, I am required to buy a car.

This isn't hyperbole, unfortunately. The part that bothers me most about this is how inefficient it is. Car ownership is expensive, a huge drain on household budgets, apart from all of the other impacts of cars. Giving many people the option to own fewer than one car per adult in a household would not cost the public purse much, but would be a boon in so many ways. The current way of doing things really does require people to buy a car, whether they can afford it or not (and plenty of people who own cars really can't afford them).

You're not exaggerating about this week, either. I get the condition of some sidewalks this evening. But plenty have not been cleared from Monday's snowfall, two days later, and there's nothing offside in that according to the city's guidelines. Pains were taken to get streets plowed out as soon as possible this week, and most street surfaces were entirely clear this morning. Not true of sidewalks. It's obvious that the City really does want you to buy a car and use it, and forget about walking.

(01-10-2018, 08:49 PM)Canard Wrote: It's getting really tiresome being made to feel like an dick simply because I have a car (and enjoy driving).

I'm sorry that's the reaction you've got from this discussion. I don't think we want to bar those who enjoy or require private vehicles, we just want to broaden opportunities when a choice of car ownership or not is among a person's options.

Oh, absolutely - but two posts above mine are saying how evil cars are. It's tiresome, and has nothing to do with this topic. So I can chime in and also say things that have nothing to do with this topic in defense.

(01-10-2018, 09:17 PM)Canard Wrote: Oh, absolutely - but two posts above mine are saying how evil cars are. It's tiresome, and has nothing to do with this topic. So I can chime in and also say things that have nothing to do with this topic in defense.

No, the two posts above yours are about how forcing people to own cars and be dependent on them is evil. I like cars, I like racing cars, I do not want to be forced to own a car and be dependent on it to get around.

Nobody is trying to make you feel like a dick for owning a car or liking a car. We're only trying to make people feel like a dick for FORCING OTHER people to own a car. That isn't you.

Okay, thanks for the clarification - sorry about that. In a perfect world I wouldn't have to have one, either - but we're not there yet. I guess that's the whole point - we have to keep pushing for better options, be it paths for walking, cycling, or trains.

Looking at it from a different way, there are other parts of the world where mass transit and walking, biking, etc are a lot easier. Very true.

That being said, South Western Ontario contends with snow(!) and other challenges. Using a car, shovelling sidewalks, and waiting for a train is par for the course. If it bothered me that much it would make perfect sense to move somewhere else where it wouldn't be an issue.

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